


she can be the sun (i'll be the moon)

by spiritsontheroof



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Boys In Love, Cheating, Emotional Hurt, Hurt Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016), M/M, Mac cheats on Desi I don't feel bad about it, Pining, i abuse commas because i have no earthly idea when to end a fucking sentence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:48:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23923363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiritsontheroof/pseuds/spiritsontheroof
Summary: Jack doesn’t get it. He imagined so many things when he brought Desi in to watch Mac’s back.He didn’t expect to lose him to her.
Relationships: Angus MacGyver/Desiree "Desi" Nguyen, Jack Dalton/Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 48





	she can be the sun (i'll be the moon)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rai_Knightshade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rai_Knightshade/gifts).



> this was supposed to be a drabble for @rai-knightshade on tumblr, but I got carried away.  
> title is i'll be the moon by maren morris and dierks bentley.

Jack doesn’t get it. He imagined so many things when he brought Desi in to watch Mac’s back.

He didn’t expect to lose him to her.

Desi’s great, Jack gets that part. But he and Mac had been... whatever they were before he left, and Jack was stupid enough to think they’d just pick back up where they left off.

The thing is, he knows Mac saw right through him when Jack pretended he was okay with it. When he spouted his bullshit about how happy he was for them, how Jack knew he’d been right about them being a perfect pair, about how maybe he’s got a future being a matchmaker. Jack plastered on his fakest smile, his biggest facade, and Desi believed every bit. But Mac just looked at him, with those stupid eyes of his, and Jack could see what he was trying to say without Mac ever having to open his mouth.

_I’m sorry, Jack._

Jack doesn’t say it’s okay, because it’s not. It’s not okay and he’s not okay but he doesn’t tell Mac that because who is he to ruin something so picture perfect?

Jack tells Riley about it and for once in their relationship, he lets her take care of him. He cries because it hurts and Riley lets him, stays with him and watches all the Bruce Willis movies they can fit into one night, and she’s his favorite person in the world because she never mentions it again after she leaves. 

He and Mac don’t talk about it. They barely talk at all, actually. Jack knows that the others can tell there’s something up, because he and Mac have never walked on eggshells around each other. They don’t talk in the field because Mac doesn’t need Jack’s voice to help him think or for Jack to watch his back.

Desi does those things perfectly.

Jack skips game nights and family dinners and stays home because he can’t stand to see them together. It’s too much, it shattered his fairytale world too violently, and he can’t take it. It’s fine like this, no one mentions it, and Mac doesn’t seem to mind.

At least that’s what Jack thought until Mac showed up, banging on Jack’s door at 11 PM on a rare Saturday night off. 

“What the hell is your problem?” Mac demands as soon as Jack opens the door.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jack says, stepping out of the way when Mac pushes by him. 

“Why didn’t you come out with the team tonight?” Mac asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Didn’t feel like it.” Jack sighs, going to the fridge for a beer.

“What’s your excuse for all the other nights?” 

Jack just shrugs and looks at his watch.

“Why are you here, Mac?”

Mac just looks at him, jaw clenched and nostrils flared. 

“Why aren’t you with her?” Jack says, and it sounds so bitter that he almost doesn’t recognize it as his own words.

“Because I need to know what the hell is up with you.” Mac says and Jack can’t help the anger that boils in his chest. He slams the bottle on the counter. Mac flinches at the noise it makes and Jack almost feels bad. Almost.

“You wanna know what the hell is up with me, Mac? Fine, I’ll tell you.” Jack says, leaning against the counter with both hands.

Mac waits silently, breathing so hard Jack can hear every exhale across the room. 

Jack takes a deep breath and looks up at him, barely holding it together. “I can’t be around you.”

The hurt that flashes over Mac’s face is instant, and Jack regrets saying anything. “Why?” Mac says, voice small.

“Because it hurts, Mac. I can’t,” Jack takes a deep breath as his own voice threatens to break, “I can’t watch you with her. It hurts, okay?”

Mac doesn’t say anything for a long time, just stands by the counter staring at Jack with something in his eyes Jack can’t quite read.

“You should go,” Jack finally says and Mac shakes his head. 

“No, I’m not going anywhere.” Mac says and Jack rubs a hand over his face. 

“You can’t just make this easy for me, can you?” Jack chuckles bitterly.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Mac snaps. “Cut me a damn break, Jesus. You act like I haven’t been hurting for years now.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, am I rubbing a new girlfriend in your face?” Jack says, clutching his chest in feign surprise.

“That is not what I mean and you know that.” Mac points at him angrily. “ _You_ left _me._ Not the other way around. You do not get to be angry with me for how I coped with being abandoned.” 

Jack scoffs. “Spare me the sob story, will you? I didn’t want to leave. I did what I had to do.”

“You could have taken me with you!” Mac yells and Jack nods, looks away.

“I’ve told you before, I can’t do my job if I’m worried about losing you every goddamn second, Mac.” Jack says, stepping around the counter. 

Mac moves closer and Jack can see, now, that Mac’s eyes are shining with tears. 

“How do you think I felt, huh?” Mac says, raising his eyebrows. “How do you think I felt knowing that any day you could die and I’d be thousands of miles away in LA? I could barely do my job for worrying about you.”

“Worrying about me didn’t keep you from screwing my replacement, now did it?” Jack says and _oh my god,_ when did he become the kind of guy who goes for the low-hanging fruit?

“Screw you.” Mac bites back, chest heaving with how hard he’s breathing. 

Jack doesn’t say anything to that, opting instead to pinch the bridge of his nose, headache threatening to form behind his eyes. 

“Why didn’t you just tell me you were jealous?” Mac asks after he paces back and forth across Jack’s floor for a minute. 

Jack huffs out something like a laugh and throws his hands in the air, letting them fall back down to sides with a slap against his thigh. “What difference would it have made, Mac?”

“All the difference in the world, Jack! I didn’t know… I thought…” Mac presses the heel of his hands into his eyes, grits his teeth before looking back to Jack, “I thought we were done with this after you left. I thought we’d had our day in the sun and that when you came back, it would go back to the way things were before we started… whatever we started.”

Jack softens immediately, reaching out to touch his obviously distressed friend. The tension in Mac’s shoulders ease as Jack pulls him in so they’re chest to chest. Jack doesn’t know what to say so he just leans in, kisses him slow and deep, reveling in the feeling of Mac pressed against him. Mac is practically putty against him, sighing into the kiss as Jack slides his hand into soft blonde locks. Jack kisses Mac until he can’t breathe and when he pulls away, Mac chases his lips. Mac stares at him, open and unguarded. 

“Please don’t leave me again.” Mac pleads softly and Jack shakes his head. 

“Never again,” Jack promises and pulls Mac in for another kiss.

They end up in bed together, littered with bite marks and hickies, and Mac’s phone rings off the hook with calls from Desi all night long. He knows he’ll have a lot of explaining and apologizing to do, but when he wakes up in the middle of the night to Jack, naked and asleep and _here_ , Mac doesn’t care about anything but this. 


End file.
